Small Spaces

against the wall

Choose plants to flatter your bricks

Starting a garden from scratch poses many questions. When it
comes to forming up a planting design – whether it’s a matter of so many plants
and so many favourites or having no idea at all – your surroundings usually
offer good answers and the walls around a garden are among the best cues.

Walls are part of the garden composition: the backdrop to
trees, hedges and borders in the foreground. Co-ordinating the soft and the hard
will help integrate the indoors with the outdoors.

Painted walls might open up the possibilities. The colour can
always be changed. But even with all the variations of clay, many natural
bricks can be reduced to a handful of colour categories – each with their own complementing
or contrasting plant colours.

The red brick wall is a friend to blocks of foliage and
hedges in dark green. For variety, introduce purple, silver or blue-grey leaves.
Blue flowers are a sure thing; especially dark and vibrant blues but also down
to pale blues. Even pinks work better if they tend more toward mauve. Ever-reliable
white is better as off-white with its purity knocked off, but before getting
too yellow as cream.

Brown brick is similar but more sombre than red. It can stand
lightening up with yellow-green or chartreuse foliage. Silver-grey will stand
out against the darker background as will the outline of variegated plants that
have leaves edged in a light colour. Blue again works well as will purple
flowers. This time choose from cleaner whites and a broad range of pink from
pastel to vivid – especially near grey leaves.

Work in negative for foliage but similarly for flowers against
blonde brick. Dark green and purple leafed plants and those with dark-coloured
edges make a good bridge from this light background. The beauty of the blonde
is fast to fade and dim with accumulated dirt. Keep it bright with saturated
pinks, purples and blues and clear white and steer away from pastels.

Liver brick is making something of a comeback in
contemporary design. It also offers the opportunity to be dramatic with hot
saturated colours like red, orange and golden-yellows and the brilliance of
chartreuse foliage. These hot beds fire up best with a dash of electric blue
for contrast. Taking a different tack, pale blues with pink and white plus grey-green
or blue-grey foliage make a more restrained effect.

Although a trusty guide to continue with, brick walls don’t demand
a colour theme be rigidly imposed over the whole garden. But the bricks are a good
starting point for choosing the plants – and their leaf and flowers colours –
to place in front of them.

against the wall

Choose plants to flatter your bricks

Starting a garden from scratch poses many questions. When it
comes to forming up a planting design – whether it’s a matter of so many plants
and so many favourites or having no idea at all – your surroundings usually
offer good answers and the walls around a garden are among the best cues.

Walls are part of the garden composition: the backdrop to
trees, hedges and borders in the foreground. Co-ordinating the soft and the hard
will help integrate the indoors with the outdoors.

Painted walls might open up the possibilities. The colour can
always be changed. But even with all the variations of clay, many natural
bricks can be reduced to a handful of colour categories – each with their own complementing
or contrasting plant colours.

The red brick wall is a friend to blocks of foliage and
hedges in dark green. For variety, introduce purple, silver or blue-grey leaves.
Blue flowers are a sure thing; especially dark and vibrant blues but also down
to pale blues. Even pinks work better if they tend more toward mauve. Ever-reliable
white is better as off-white with its purity knocked off, but before getting
too yellow as cream.

Brown brick is similar but more sombre than red. It can stand
lightening up with yellow-green or chartreuse foliage. Silver-grey will stand
out against the darker background as will the outline of variegated plants that
have leaves edged in a light colour. Blue again works well as will purple
flowers. This time choose from cleaner whites and a broad range of pink from
pastel to vivid – especially near grey leaves.

Work in negative for foliage but similarly for flowers against
blonde brick. Dark green and purple leafed plants and those with dark-coloured
edges make a good bridge from this light background. The beauty of the blonde
is fast to fade and dim with accumulated dirt. Keep it bright with saturated
pinks, purples and blues and clear white and steer away from pastels.

Liver brick is making something of a comeback in
contemporary design. It also offers the opportunity to be dramatic with hot
saturated colours like red, orange and golden-yellows and the brilliance of
chartreuse foliage. These hot beds fire up best with a dash of electric blue
for contrast. Taking a different tack, pale blues with pink and white plus grey-green
or blue-grey foliage make a more restrained effect.

Although a trusty guide to continue with, brick walls don’t demand
a colour theme be rigidly imposed over the whole garden. But the bricks are a good
starting point for choosing the plants – and their leaf and flowers colours –
to place in front of them.